Ignorance
by Elinix
Summary: Way back then, they got a visitor who temporary changed everything for him. When nothing happens everything stays the same, when something does happen you know you will get reactions. He never wanted reactions. But he wasn't given a choise.


Disclaimer: House md and all characters belong to David Shore or Fox, I'm not sure which, but they are certainly not mine. I'm just borrowing. Enjoy.

* * *

He was blocking the way out. He looked like he was just casually stopping by. Like it was the most natural thing in the world for him to stand there.  
It wasn't. Chase had never expected this man to suddenly show up in his life again. At least not unannounced, not at his work and definitely not like this. Just standing in the doorway, calm, smiling a little. 

"Dr Chase. You have a few moments?"

He was stunned for a second. "Sorry, I have to go"

He passed by the man, close enough to touch him, feeling surreal, like it wasn't really happening. It was so out of place. Like stumbling upon a dolphin in the middle of a desert. You believe your head is messing with out rather than admit that it's actually there. That would be way more logical. But apparently this particular dolphin was happily stranded in the diagnostics office, logical or not.  
So what on earth was going on?

Chase had expected him to be gone when he returned from the "secret club-mission". He wasn't. And not only that, it seemed like he planned to stick around for a while. Chase had sort of figured that the problem would solve itself if he just didn't acknowledge it, the intruder would fade away and things would naturally turn back to normal. Apparently that wasn't the case. He figured maybe he should try to get used to the surrealness. It seemed to become permanent.

Of course House wanted to know what was up. House wants to know everything. Always. He hadn't expected anything else. But it didn't make things any easier. He had always hated it when House analysed him, because he could never quite shake the feeling that those piercing eyes saw right through him. He never even tried to lie to those eyes, he just ignored questions or changed the subject. A tactic that usually worked. Especially if the new subject was in any way interesting, and hopefully related to a case, which meant urgent, which meant House postponed his physiological study and left him alone.  
And every time House took his attention away from him and focused it on something else he breathed a sigh of relief, because if House is merciless on his patients he is even worse on his staff. Direct questions, he doesn't even bother to pretend to be considerate in any way and no holding back. On the other hand, House never holds back.  
This time Chase really wished he would.

For some reason it seemed like people thought it was ok to ask things that wasn't any of their business just because the subject in question was sitting in the next room. Cameron was nice, she is Cameron, she's always nice, but she asked him straight out about something he was obviously uncomfortable with and actually pushed it, even after he had made it clear that he didn't want to talk about it.  
And it wasn't even out of kindness. She just wanted to know. He knew that she cared and knew she didn't mean any harm, but he wanted to keep his private life private thank you very much.

And Wilson just _happened_ to be eating lunch the exact same time as he did, and of course he too felt that the cafeteria was to crowded and went outside for a bit of fresh air. When Chase pointed this out all he got back was a smile and a "yeah, strange coincidence isn't it?". He watched Wilson open his lunchbox, containing something that was either a delicacy or the result of a huge mistake in the kitchen, and either way most likely hard to pronounce. He wondered if it was House's or Wilson's own idea to check on him, and then, quite suddenly, realized he had forgotten to pack his own lunch in his lunchbox. He was instead staring at last night's empty chips bag, leftovers from breakfast and, for some mysterious reason, his TV remote. Great. Even if they had been edible he doubted either of them would taste very good and quickly closed the box again, hoping Wilson wouldn't notice. Last thing he needed was someone knowing how distracted he had actually been that morning. But the worried look on Wilson's face, and the way he leaned over the table to close the two of them off a bit and catch his eyes (as he most likely did when talking to his cancer patients) told him that he hadn't been quick enough.  
Now Wilson is very good at his job and exceptional when it comes to making people open up to him. But not even his admittedly professional way of giving openings and carefully ask if there was anything he wanted to talk about got more than a lopsided grin from Chase. No it was nothing, he could pass it on to House that he was just fine. From the sheepish smile he could tell he had been right about the brain behind this master plan. He excused himself, figuring he should get back to the cafeteria, so that he would at least get something to eat before the break was over. Wilson agreed that might be a good idea and they parted smiling. But when he rose from the table he saw the look Wilson shot his lunchbox and he felt worried eyes upon him all the way inside.

Even Cuddy threw him a look when they met in the clinic. No doubt she knew the hospital was visited by world renown Dr Rowan Chase, and knew that he was helping out in diagnostics, but from the mixture of surprise (probably at his presence in the clinic), concern and good old fashioned curiosity he could tell that a little bird or two had told her about the icy relationship between doctors Chase and Chase. At least she was decent enough not to say anything, but after their exchanged good mornings she kept eye contact in an unspoken question, and when she caught herself on it she smiled apologetically and headed onwards.

The only one who didn't bother him about it was Foreman. He did quite the opposite and didn't give a damn.Not that that was unexpected. It's Foreman. No life to save means no reason to stick his nose in others business. He didn't care about any of this as long as it didn't interfere with his work. Maybe liked it even, Rowan Chase is a great doctor and the kid they were currently trying to fix needed all the help he could get. Besides, Foreman doesn't like Chase very much.  
He knows that, it doesn't matter. Actually he wouldn't have been surprised if Foreman had joined House in mocking him. But he didn't, so maybe he (unlike their boss) had managed to dig up some respect for the fact that people have feelings and sometimes can even get hurt. Instead he was indifferent, treating him just the like any other day. Meaning not particularly nicely, but still with a professional attitude. Fact is, Chase has gotten used to that. They work well together, and Foreman can be very funny, in a more discreet way than House's "speak your rude mind at any time and be damn funny while you do it"-policy. He knows the difference, and has slowly started to appreciate Foreman's quiet humour. It sort of balances House's mean hilariousness.

And now he realized that he had actually grown so used to Foreman, to his reliability and strength of character that he trusted him. Despite the "not liking"-part. Of course he didn't like Foreman either. Nope. He just… well, trusted him. Not the same thing.

But lately they had been doing better. Foreman didn't look at him with that annoyed face as often. And his tone was mostly a little less arrogant. Over all Chase almost enjoyed working with him. And now, being in the lab with Foreman was a relief compared to his nosy colleagues and his father, whose mere presence was enough to throw him off balance. Foreman didn't talk much, but they hardly ever did. It was familiar. Safe. And still, to his own surprise, it bugged Chase slightly that he didn't even acknowledged the situation. Because even though he was grateful for the silence it still hurt somewhere to think that Foreman ignored it completely. Ignored him. And despite that he didn't want to talk about it, about any of it, he just couldn't shake the nagging thought that maybe he should. But Foreman never brought it up, never mentioned a thing, so neither did he.

What he didn't notice was how Foreman watched him, out of the corner of his eye, constantly observing every move he made. And he stayed around, even when there was no real reason for him to be there, keeping Chase company.

When the uninvited guest finally left, Chase was clearly quite shaken. Naturally, being Chase, he tried to hide it, but it still shined through. Foreman was almost positive that House had talked to him the last day, and probably caught him off guard, because there was a sort of weariness in Chase's behaviour. Like he was just waiting for lightning to strike, in form of a quick snide mark or a sarcastic joke. But it never did. In fact, the whole event was treated like it never happened. Foreman choose not to comment on that either.

But when they were back in the lab the next day, Foreman waiting for a test result and Chase studying a tiny piece of a body part under a microscope, he placed a hand on his troubled colleague's shoulder, startling him a little. Nothing was spoken, but the gentle squeeze said enough. When Foreman walked back over to the beeping machine to get the paper it just spitted out Chase took a deep, relaxed breath. He hesitated a moment before whispering "Thank you".

No answer. So either Foreman didn't hear it, or he just ignored it.


End file.
